Ark

Poetry

Series in co-edition with pièdimosca edizioni
directed by Anna Maria Farabbi

The Arca series is born with a marginal identity, in the deepest sense: it was conceived to dwell at the margins precisely because of its radical, atypical nature.

I have been entrusted with the responsibility of this editorial proposal, and I take it on as a project immersed in poetry, not only in its catalog offering, but also in its very character and substance.

The series is created as a co-edition between two publishing houses: Piedimosca and Al3vie. I believe this is the only experience of its kind in Italy—or at least a very rare testimony—of a cooperative effort in both choice and investment. In this case, small publishing discovers alternative business and cultural policies against competitive individualism.

The thread we hold in our hands is feminine. We are three women—Elena Zuccaccia for Piedimosca, Raffaella Polverini for Al3vie, and myself, Anna Maria Farabbi, as curator—working for poetry in the ocean of the marketplace. All three of us live, not only in our work, a gender-conscious thought.

The name Arca has a meaning reversed from its traditional, majestically sacred one. Every piece of wood of this navigating poetic vessel salvages a vital beauty to return it safe to the community, carrying within itself a political, sacred, powerful tension. It does not offer greatness as value, but rather quality. This series is less an ark than a small archaic piece of wood, as the song always is.

It will sail hosting one or at most two works per year. The number of publishing houses is infinite, poets infinite, books infinite, floating in the infinite waters of the market, among infinite eyes and hands. The ark contains only a few bodies per year. It bears, and gives back, the weight of this extreme parsimony, in the minimal, essential act of choice. Poetry calls for little.

The first three women poets, plus a fourth author. I opened the journey, at the suggestion of Elena and Raffaella. The title of my work, The Way of Little, announces the direction of the series. I step into the responsibility of its care. Following me will be, allowing for possible changes or additions: Paola Febbraro (Stellezze) and Carmela Pedone (Frammentario), both already published in the series I directed for Lietocolle, now out of print. Two works that deserve to return vigorously to the light.

Paola Febbraro with her original, absolute, austere song, lived with purest integrity, without compromise. Carmela Pedone, with a blood-forged writing born of tragic psychiatric suffering.

I have already identified the fourth author and shared my choice with Elena Zuccaccia and Raffaella Polverini. We will announce the name aloud soon.

Anna Maria Farabbi